


Beneath the Half-Lit Window

by YellowShapedBox



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Character Study, Duet, Episode 27, Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 06:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16529114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowShapedBox/pseuds/YellowShapedBox
Summary: They knew that all life was contest, lived beneath the half-light of a gas-lamp. But they disagreed on what this fundamentally meant, and they took the news accordingly.





	Beneath the Half-Lit Window

All life is contest. This I've known  
As long as I've lived life--

And life's not to be diced away.  
Each tool, a surgeon's knife,

And contest's not to be forfeit,  
But fought in tooth and strife,

 

That I might win the crowning  
In the ever-seeking sight  
Of that half-lit window, gleaming

Like the North Star in the night.

Like the Sun's own warmth and might.

 

And if some night it happens  
There's no North Star in the sky,  
Which leaves one not quite sure  
Of what direction one must ply,  
Then one must look to other means.  
The facts must be made known,  
And if the North Star's no more use,  
The way's still elsewhere shown.

And at first, when daylight falters  
And the Sun's beneath the ground,  
The vestige may deceive you.  
You see not that night's been crowned.  
But how can one sit impassive  
In the dark where that light shone?  
What will burn, must fuel the bonfire  
Till the night be overthrown!

 

The fool who would say otherwise:  
See how he fares alone.

 

And all my life was contest  
For the crowning and the place,  
But all we were, in all that strife,  
Was children in a race.  
I started on a longer track,  
Beset by dread and doubt,  
When the gas-lamp in the window  
flared, in signal,

and went out.

 


End file.
